The Transnational Challenge of Union Organizing: The Transnational Partnership Initiative of the IG Metall and the UAW – and Beyond

Topic

As corporations have globalized their production and supply chains, trade unions as nationally embedded member organizations have been challenged to develop strategic responses that will protect their achieved standards at home and forge cross-country alliances aimed to eliminate "union-free" zones. In the context of the broader issues involved we will present an approach – the Transnational Partnership Initiative (TPI) - currently being piloted by the IG Metall and the UAW as a example of the challenges and the dimensions of responses in transnational union politics.

Speakers

Dr. Michael Fichter:

Until 2011 Senior Lecturer in Political Science and Executive Director of the Center for National and International Labor Studies at the Free University of Berlin. Member of the faculty of the Global Labour University, Berlin Program. Consultant on transnational labor issues for the IG Metall and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Numerous publications on labor and trade union issues.

Carsten Huebner:

Executive Director of the Transatlantic Labor Institute (TLI) in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Former Consultant on transnational union cooperation for the European and Global Group Works Council of Volkswagen and IG Metall.